2002-11-17 04:00:00 PDT New York -- Say the F-word to Chris Columbus, the director of the first two "Harry Potter" movies, and he will respond with contempt worthy of Alan Rickman's Professor Snape.

"You're talking to a guy who despises the word 'franchise,' " Columbus said in a recent interview. "It goes against everything I believe in filmmaking."

Warner Bros. entrusted Columbus with conjuring mass appeal to rival J.K. Rowling's books about the boy wizard. So far, Columbus has succeeded. The first movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," grossed nearly $1 billion. The second, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which opened Thursday, has generated excitement again from young audiences.

But Columbus, 43, refused to entertain the notion that he is a franchise- builder. A San Francisco family man who forged his career on the "Home Alone" romps, Columbus would probably deal better with the saltier F-word.

" 'Harry Potter' is a franchise based on the fact that it has a bunch of toys and paper towels attached to it," he said. "Aside from that, I'm still making a film that connects to an audience. I'm still making my film. I'm still making my vision of Hogwarts."

Where storytelling ends and commerce begins for Columbus didn't fully emerge in this conversation at a hotel overlooking Central Park. The director said he was conscious of making three movies that could fit neatly into a DVD package that folks could watch on a rainy day. But the bottom line is that he is not thinking about the bottom line.

At the moment, he was putting the finishing touches on "The Chamber of Secrets" while dipping his toe in the waters of preproduction for the third installment in the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." He handed "Prisoner's" directing reins to Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") but is staying on as a producer.

Columbus has sworn to take a hands-off approach on the set because tension could rattle the young lead actors, 12-year-old Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), 13-year-old Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and 12-year-old Emma Watson (Hermione).

"You can only hope that they age with grace," he said, "but no 13-year-old does. That's part of the interest in the third film: to see what happens with them. They have to be like real kids because that's why other kids relate to them."

Columbus learned a how-not-to lesson in making sequels when Joel Schumacher took over for Tim Burton in the last two "Batman" movies.

"What happened with 'Batman' was horrible," Columbus said. "When they put nipples on the bat suit, I was thinking, 'Come on, get me out of here.' They suddenly turned this dark, interesting film -- Tim did a great job -- into 'Starlight Express.' "

Columbus does not wear a suit to work. He doesn't pore over accounts receivable. And he has surprisingly little control over the merchandising. (He had no idea "Harry Potter" paper towels were being sold until his wife brought a roll home.) But he is still responsible for filling the studio coffers.

To that end, he said, he has applied the basics: Make each movie stand on its own and keep them fresh.

"The Chamber of Secrets" required less setup, so it had to be more energetic. Columbus fought the studio -- and won -- on a few cost-cutting measures that might have compromised the action. One called for the exclusion of a Quidditch match because the stadium sequences were expensive. (The budget for "Chamber of Secrets" topped out at a reported $130 million.)

The "Chamber of Secrets" book, about a force that threatens to close Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is darker and edgier than the first book. Columbus was glad to oblige. He said his goal was to make two hours and 40 minutes flash by like 20 minutes. The studio's tracking of interest in the film indicates that a giant audience on opening weekend will be there to let Columbus know whether he was successful. Sounding like a candidate on election day, Columbus said his work was done. No sense in worrying about the outcome.

The baby-faced Columbus wore a sweatshirt, black T-shirt and jeans -- the same ensemble preferred by much of his audience. His most successful films have a youthful twinkle in their eye.

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Columbus flirted briefly with comic-book drawing before turning to script writing. After graduating from New York University, he gained a foothold in Hollywood by writing the spunky horror flick "Gremlins" (1984) and "Goonies" (1985) for Steven Spielberg and "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985) for Barry Levinson. His first directorial effort, "Adventures in Babysitting" (1987), earned him a sit-down with John Hughes. Their association resulted in Columbus making "Home Alone" (1990) and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992), followed by the cross-dressing hit "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), "Nine Months" (1995) and "Stepmom" (1998).

Columbus said his objective in crafting movies today is no different from when he got into the business. He was still smarting from a magazine critic's dismissal of "The Sorcerer's Stone" as corporate grist.

"The reason I got the job was not because of my business sense," he said. "It's because I was incredibly passionate about the book."

By the time the third film is completed, "Harry Potter" will have kept Columbus, his wife, Monica, and their four children in London for three years. They plan to return to their Pacific Heights home next summer.

"I want to sit down and write an original screenplay, which I haven't done in 13 years," he said. "It's much more intimidating to sit down to a blank sheet of paper than it is to go on the set with 300 people."

Is it harder than shepherding a franchise?

"I don't think when Springsteen sits down to make another record, he's thinking the word 'franchise,' " Columbus said. "Everybody I've ever admired in my life has not thought of the word 'franchise.' "